Final Wish
by fowl68
Summary: And Naruto had never forgiven him for bringing out that inner beast that he tried to keep locked away. Even if it was to save his life. Mentioned past SasuNaru


**Disclaimer:** Don't own

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone! Been getting loads of story ideas, but they're all jumbled together in no particular order, so bear with me. I've been obsessed with Dance Magic Dance from the movie Labyrinth with David Bowie. That song is damn addictive.

Anyways, got the idea for this watching Gilmore Girls (Don't ask me how, I don't know). Warning, it will probably be quite angsty.

For this one, I think my inspiration was partially some songs by MayDay Parade. Specifically _I'd Hate To Be You When People Find Out What This Song_ _is About_ and _Three Cheers for Five Years._ Also, _I Don't Love You_ by My Chemical Romance.

-~-~-~-~

_Friendship is Love, without his wings. ~Lord Byron, __**L'Amitié est l'Amour sans Ailes**_

-~-~-`-~

It was easier than it should have been to hear the news without flinching.

"Uchiha Sasuke has been sentenced to death tomorrow morning." And then, a little gentler, she said, "I thought you'd want to know.

He shouldn't have been able to look at Tsunade in the face so calmly, to nod and say a quiet thank you before turning and leaving the office. He shouldn't have been able to go straight back to his apartment and make a strawberry milkshake (Sakura had taught him how) wrap a blanket around his shoulders and fall asleep on the couch with no problem.

But he did.

A knock stirred him from his sleep and Naruto stumbled out of the tangled blanket, trying not to knock the milkshake glass over, though it was empty, to the door. Peering through the peephole and seeing a familiar face, he opened the door, still blinking sleep from his eyes.

"'S too early for this, Shika." And Shikamaru looked it, with the same half-awake look that Naruto was sure he was mirroring and dark circles beneath his eyes. The chestnut hair usually so neatly pulled back was coming undone by what looked like frustrated hands running through it.

"Don't I know it." Shikamaru grumbled. "But it's something I know you'd want to at least hear this." A moment's hesitation. "…Sasuke requested that he see you."  
"Tell him no. Please. I don't want to see him."  
"It's his last wish, Naruto. He dies tomorrow. I'm saying this because I don't want you to regret not going later. You don't even have to stay for more than five minutes. Just go."

"…Fine."

* * *

His footsteps echoed in the long hallways of the holding cells. He still had his blanket around his shoulders—it was damned _cold_ down here—and it didn't take him less than a second to figure out where Sasuke would be. All the way down, farthest from the doors, on the left.

"So why'd you ask to see me?" Naruto didn't need to actually look for him inside that cell. He would be sitting exactly in the center of the cell, seeming impossibly at ease there, even though some part of him wasn't at all comfortable.

"Didn't think you'd actually come." Sasuke's voice had lowered a little, words coming out slightly scratchy from lack of water.

"No, you didn't. You _knew_ I'd come." Naruto sat down cross-legged with his back leaning on the bars. "So why?"

Sasuke stayed silent, though from the slight rustle of cloth and the barest hint of warmth in the spaces between the bars, Naruto knew that he'd moved to mimic his position.

"_Why_, Sasuke?" Naruto pressed.

"You know I don't like answering stupid question, Naruto. You know why."  
"No, I really don't." The slight stirrings of tired anger colored Naruto's voice. "I've been scratching my head since Shika came and woke me up as to why you'd want to see me, but I've drawn a blank every single time."

At Sasuke's continued silence, Naruto growled in frustration and whirled to look at him. The dark hair hung lank around a drawn, too-pale face; the high cheekbones protruding from his face. Naruto refused to look directly into his eyes. But even with all of the obvious signs of malnutrition and—Naruto glanced down at Sasuke's wrists; they had dried blood on them.—torture, Sasuke still looked like the man that Naruto remembered.

And suddenly, Naruto couldn't hold onto that anger anymore. "…They didn't even bother to clean you up when they found you?" He'd been in the depths of Snow Country's underground prisons. A more accurate description would have been Sasuke was trapped in an oubliette.* Had it not been for Neji's thorough searching of the place when they'd kidnapped his cousin, they never would have found him.

"No. Made sure I wasn't on the verge of dying and then handed me to Ibiki."

Naruto looked him over. "Still looks like you're on the verge of dying to me."

A grim twist of pale lips that wasn't quite a smile, but Naruto wasn't sure what else to call it. "You'd be right."

And with three words, the air is suddenly heavier, pressing down on their lungs until it became an effort to breathe comfortably. Because Sasuke was dying tomorrow and the seals on the cell were specifically made to keep him in.

"…Why were you in that place?"

Naruto could feel the ebony-laced glance in his direction. "I killed somebody's mother's sister's uncle's best friend or something. Someone else that hated me and wanted me to rot in a hellhole."

Naruto flinched at the implication that Sasuke thought he hated him. "Sasuke…"

"You're going to lie and say you don't hate me?"

Naruto heaved a sigh. "I might not love you anymore and I do hate you a little-"

"Hence the lying bit."

"You crossed a line, Sasuke! It was a line I never thought you would cross, but you did! In what level of hell did you think you'd be able to do that to me?!"  
Naruto didn't see the terrible darkness that came over Sasuke's eyes at that sentence. He didn't see the tortured ghosts of what he'd done that day pass over the pasty features. "I had no choice. You were going to die."

"You did so have a choice! I would have healed!"  
Hot anger finally leaked into the brunette's words. "No, you wouldn't have. Those people had killed a jinchuruki already. They have some way of making the wounds stay open."

"But she would've gotten away!"

They were both on their feet now, glaring through the bars. Sasuke finally couldn't say anymore, and sat back down, trying to keep the memories at bay. Yes, he had coerced the Kyuubi out because Naruto was out of chakra and on the verge of collapsing. She wasn't supposed to run in like that, red staining creamy skin and darkening pale pink hair.

And Naruto had never forgiven him for bringing out that inner beast that he tried to keep locked away. Even if it was to save his life.

Naruto began chuckling, very quietly at first. Sasuke wouldn't have heard it if he hadn't been so accustomed to listening for the blonde's voice, and then it slowly got louder until Naruto had to lean on the bars for support, he was laughing so hard.

Sasuke looked at him, bewildered. "You wanna tell me what the hell is the matter with you?"

Naruto grinned up at him and Sasuke hadn't realized just how much he'd missed that smile. "The thought just popped into my head that we haven't changed much since we were kids. Still yelling at each other for stuff." _And still best friends after the yelling's through_, though neither one of them said it.

Naruto plopped down beside Sasuke, slouching more into the bars. Sasuke did almost the same and warmth spread through their shoulders where they touched. The warmth was familiar and helped bring to mind a time when they weren't sitting in a cell like this, but were outside among the trees and they sky, with all the innocence of teenagers.

Nothing more was said, not once as the rest of what time was slipped past them until dawn was on the horizon because sometimes a best friend's job was simply to be there. Two ANBU were walking down the corridor. Two pairs of eyes, one sapphire and one obsidian, looked up at them.

"Let's go, Uchiha."

Sasuke stood stiffly, Naruto rising a moment after. There was little concern as to the ANBU's safety as they unlocked the cell. Sasuke had been trapped for too long to be much of a threat to them right now.

Before the ANBU could take the raven, Naruto made sure to hug him tight, breathing in the scent of smoky ashes and Sasuke's own unique smell. "Wait for me, won't you?" Naruto said in his ear.  
Sasuke brought his arms up and returned the embrace just as fiercely. "I have to if it's your slow ass, dobe."

Naruto laughed, more to keep himself from crying now than anything, before releasing him and stepping back. "See you then, teme."

-/-/-/-/

***Oubliette **- (noun, French) a little place of forgetting. A small, windowless room where someone is locked away, forgotten, left to go mad.


End file.
